Ivo Nelson an innovator and CEO of NextWave Health, was honored by the John P. Glaser Health Informatics Society on October 4 in a ceremony that took place at the University of Texas UTHealth School of BIomedical Informatics (SBMI).

Nelson began his work advancing the use of technology in improving patient outcomes in 1989 at Perot Systems. He left to found Healthlink which became the largest privately-held provider-focused health information consulting firm until it was acquired by IBM in 1992. He went on to participate in the formation of a number of other healthcare companies and served on the board of HIMSS. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Next Wave Health, an investment firm that works with start-ups and early stage companies.

The UTHealth SBMI formed the John P. Glaser Health Informatics Society last year "to recognize innovators in the field of health informatics and provide education, collaboration and networking opportunities for the broader community of health informatics professionals, clinicians and students."

Photos: Marcos Hernandez

John Glaser honoring Ivo Nelson

John Glaser (right) served as CEO of Siemens Health Services until it was acquired by Cerner. Previously, Glaser was vice president and CIO of Partners HealthCare; he also previously served as vice president of information systems at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was the founding chair of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and past-president of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). He is a prolific author; his most recent book is Glaser on Health Care IT: Perspectives from the Decade that Defined Health Care Information Technology.

Attending the ceremony in Houston...

John Glaser, senior vice president of Population Health and Global Strategy, Cerner Corporation; Steve Lieber, president & CEO, HIMSS; Ivo Nelson, chairman and CEO, Next Wave Health; Jiajie Zhang, dean, UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics; and Robert Murphy, MD, associate dean for Applied Informatics, UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics.

The ceremony was held at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Houston

TheJohn P. Glaser Health Informatics Society at UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics was created to provide a forum for dialogue and collaboration among faculty, students, alumni, and a diverse group of professionals working in the field of health informatics.

John Glaser and Jiajie Zhang, dean, UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics